Musical-device pneumatic apparatus.



No. 893,679 PATENTED JULY 14, 1908.

R. A.'GALLY. MUSICAL DEVICE PNEUMATIC APPARATUS. 'APPLIGATION FILED JA'N.1B, 1 908.

t EYE U EII ECE; (23% a.

Q Q .t I U Q V WINES:

v the top of each with. its

rear of the pneumatic @hll ltilit I ROBERT A. catty, or New vonn, N, Y.

No. seams). specification oi v I f I Original application filed January 6, 1908, Seriei No. e09,

Letters Patent. Eatented July 14,, race.

Divided and this application filed. January 16, 196B.

tierial No. 311,118.

new and useful Improvements in Musical Devices Pneumatic Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is the construction of a simpler and more direct actin and effective pneumatic action'for musica apparatus, it being especially adapted in its general arrangement for use in player-pianos.

In the accompanying drawin s Figure 1 is a sectional view from the treble end of m pneumatic action, showing its co-action with the piano action; Fig. 2, is a plan of the pneumatic chest from the under side near the treble end, the bottom board of said action being artly cut away to show inside detail on uni er side of upper board; and Fig. 3 an end section of the tracker bar and its vents for controlling the pneumatic valves.

Most player-pianos have used various levers, stickers, etc., between their strikerpneumatics and the keys, abstracts or wipp e ns, causing loss of power by friction, lia billty of rattling or sticking from wear and weather changes, and much bother of getting out of regulation, even to the extent of interfering with the cori 'ect regulation for manual performance, while the few designs avoiding" the complicated connections have had their powcr-pneumatics directly engaging the abstracts at the opening ends of the pneulnatics, thereby failing to obtain any increase of leverage such as is requisite for a firm touch of the notes and a reasonably low air tension for operation. ways connecting the valves and pneumatics have usually been somewhat tortuous, causing frictional loss of power, and slowness of speech, except when an undesirably high air tension was employed. '1 overcome these faults in the following simple, easy working, and economical manner :--l place my strikerpneumatics l'in horizontal rows (preferably three) with their open ends: facing to the front of the moving-boar 2 of each neurnatic being at iiinge 3 at the rear, and on top of the moving-board .2 is fastened an extension orheel-lever 4 extending to the and havin' ts, rear end felted and resting up against a ug 5 fast a on the abstract 6 of that particular note of Also, the wind-- 1 iano or other instrument, the a the tone-producing action, the heel-lever 4 reversingthe downward stroke of pneumatic l to an upward. lift on the lug 5 and abstract 6 to roduce a Lone.

, Tie above described general arrangement of power-pneumatics, and their relation. to

the action abstracts, are not claimed herein,"

being claimed in a divisional application hereof, #418,834, filed March 2/08,iwhe r ein are also included and claimed the disposition pneumatics, secondary neuniatics'f and secondary valves; the va fie-seat, entrainevalve-flap being erased here cm for insertion n another divisional application.

boards 12 fastened to the upper-board 13 of the moving-board of that pneumatic and having a valve-chamber 15 formed in its heel part, and capped by a cover 16 of wood hav: mg its grain crosswise oi the longitudinal grain of the wooden fixed board 12, to insure the heel part against warping. Fi om chamber 15 a passage 17 slants up to the interior of its pneumatic The n per face of the inside bf chamber i5 is also s anted upwardly towards the interior of the striker-pneumatic, so that the air when passing from the outside port 17 into the striker-pneumatic has the least possible angle to. its path, also that when the valve in said chamber 15 is raised, the air exhausted from. the interior oi. pneu matic 1 through port 18 will have the most straight draft possible, all for avoidance of oss by air friction.

The valve 26 is of hard, permanently true surface material as aluminum, and. is rockably mounted on its red 27, and on'top of this'valve is a flexible hinge-flap of thin hollands cloth or the like which extends tached .to the upper board 13 of the chest, preferably at the top of; the 22 when that is attached. to t by the hinge oi the flap 28 being at a level for thus guides the valve 26 centrally to the ports 17 and.18 without friction or noise or the ordinary valve-rod guides, and the valve angle of the other.

of the tubes 46, and the grading of the power tion valve washer and yielding hinging'of the My strikenpneumatics 1 have their 1 tedeach action-chest 14, (preferably by screws) each fixed-board 12 extending to the rear of in a narrow flap to the rear and is there atplanking leather e chest, there easy movement up and down' The flap 28's readily changes plane rroin one seat to the When necessary, aswlth great of valve seats, or with the-valve wil red lying horizontally, a flap similar to 28 may connect the follower button or rod 26 at that part of the rod, to the upper board 13 for extra guidance as in Fig 5, ut in its vertical position the lower end of valve-rod 27 is usually held central to the diaphragm 3]. by the frictional grip of said diaphragm on follower button 30.

The valve-rod 27 depends from valve 26 in a substantially vertical line, and has a follower or button 30 screwed to its lower end, which button is entirely free from attachment to the diapl'iragm leather 31 of the secondary pneumatic 32 of lower board 33.

A duct 34 leads from s condary pneumaticsocket 32 to its corresponding primary pneu matic valves. The )rimary pneumaticvalves 35, 36, have a vafve-rod 37, and screwed to the top 2f the rod a follower or button 38, which latteris free from attachment to the diaphragm 39 of primary pneumatic 40. The primary and secondary valve gear being 0 ch complete in itself, the primary valve gear carried and guided by the lower board I 33 free from the upper board 13, and the secondary valvegear carried and guided by the upper board 13 free from the lower board 33, each valve gear can be easily assembled complete on its own board and the two i boards be afterward combined, and thus the entire primary and secondary action be com- )lete in a single chest ofbut two pieees, which has the advantage of being separable at any time without disturbing any adjustments of valves and. pneumaties, and there are no duct joints from one board to another.

The two boards l3, of chest 1 are preferably held in relative position by vtrtical grain wood dowels or posts ll intermediate the two boards and adjacent to the longitudinal lines of the primary and secondary valves respectively, thus i usuring the constant distance between the tv 0 boards at these important points irrespe tive of the atmospheric changes which alter the distance when wooden separating rails were used. It is desirable to have the posts 41 with their ends at the important p anes of regulation of the pneumoties and vtllvcs, as is that post adjacent to the primary in Fig. 1 where the upper end of that post 41 is in the plane of the fac of upper board 13 to which the pneullltltit' diaphragm is attached, and its lower end countersunk in board 33 near as possible to the constant-seat lower face thereof.

o complete a durably air-tight chest, sealing strips 4-3 of duck or rubber-cloth are coated over with glue and laid over the edges of the chest boards 13, 33, from top tobottom, and afterwards varnished.

The valve-rod 37 is guided centrally with the valve hole by a spring 4 1 fastened to the lower face of the lower board 33. and the lower valve being driven light on rod 37, said rod is held centrally thrbughout .fr'im turning While the valve hole and with its button 38 central to the diaphragm 39 and its socket 40, all without the use of any guide inside the chest. When the primary diaphragm 39 is thrown down by the air pressure inflating its socket 40 through duct and tube 46 connecting to the tracker and its perforated music sheet, the pressure of said diaphragm 39 on the button 38 serves to hold that button and its red 37 in its original central alinement with the valve hole while the rod and its valves are being actuated, but to make certain of an accurate seating of inner valve 36 to its seat, that valve 36 has its hole loose to the rod 37 so that the valve 36 may rock slightly and so surely seat itself to the inner face of board 33. The soft leather facing disk 47 is snug on the rod 37 to prevent valve 36 from dropping of its own weight, but is loose from its valve 36. 1

so that said valve free to rock a trifle.

As the primary diaphragm 39 drops freely onto the. follower button 38, no lost motion or crowding.between these parts is ever possible, thus doing away with any adjusting means between them, and also permitting of -the regulating ofdistance of motion of the primary Valves 35, 36 Without disarranging a correct. cooperation with diaphragm 39. Such regulating of the primary valves 35 and 3G is made possible without opening the chest. and even while the air-tension is on and i he valves operable for test, by nu ans of a drlent piece 49 fast to the button 38 into which I he rod 37 is secured. Detent pins 50 stand firmly in board '33 near the ends of the deten ts 49, one pin serving for ach adjacent pair of detents, and thus the button 38 is held the operator turns the rod 37 from the outside of chest and thereby works the screw thread of the rod in the bu t- .ton and changes the distance of button 38 and its valve 36 relative to the outervalvc 35.

The connecting tubes 46 are often of soft rubber, and such are commonly attached at their ends by being crowded over a metal thimble, with the ultimate result that the strain on the rubber at such places causes the tubes to crack and the notes to cipher or drag. The metal thimbles 51-of the present structure are made large enough for the rubber tubes 46 to snugly slip inside of the bore of the thimbles, with a slight compression of the rubber which holds the tube. to place without cementing, thus allowing removal, and yet no straining, breakage or leakage of the tubes can ever occur.

The return-vents 52 are preferably disposed nearer to the operating-vents 53 of the tracker 54 to which tubes 46 connect the pneumatic action, than to the pncumatics, according to the invention claimed in my Patent #545,156 of August 27th, 1.895, this being more effective than the old form of placing the return vents in the action chest. The tracker 54 shown in Fig. 3 hereof is an adaptation oi said former invention to a metal tracker, and is of novel excellence, but not being claimable herein is reserved for a separate application in that class. I The novel general arrangement of the chests, pneumatics and levers relative to the abstracts and keys has been shown in my prior application $409,473, but not being claimable therein was then reserved for fu- 1Q ture application, the present one being the one meant thereby.

I What I claim as my invention is V 1. A bellows pneumatibghaving a .iixed board and a moving boardfdts fixed board extending atone end beyolg d its moving board, and a valve chamber cqm' rised within said extended part of the are board and opening to the interior ot-thc pneumatic.

2. A hinged bellows neumatio havinga fixed board and a moving board, its fixed board extending beyond the hinged end of its moving board, and a valve chamber com prised within said extended part of the fixed card, and opening to the interior of the pneumatic.

3. A bellows pneumatic having a fixed board and a moving board, its fixed board extending at onecnd beyond its moving board and a valve chamber within said extended part of the fixed board and opening to the interior of the pneumatic; at an upward slant. "1

4. A bellows pneumatic having a fixed board and a moving board, its fixed board extending at one end beyond its moving board and a valve chamber within said extended part of the fixed board and opening to the interior of the pneumatic, said ohamher having the inner surface of its top slanted upwardly from its rear to itsopening into the pneumatic; 5. A bellows pneumatic having a fixed board andi'a moving board, its fixed board extending, at' one end beyond its moving board and a valve chambe comprised within said extended part of t e fixed board and opening to the interior of the pneumatic, the topof said chamber consisting of a wooden cap having its grain transverse to the longitudinal grain'of the fixed board, and'firmly glued thereto.v l

6. A bellows pneumatic having a fixed board and .a moving board, its fixed board extending at' one end; beyond its moving 5.5 board, and a valve chamber com rised within said extended part of the fixed oard andopening to the interior'oi the pneumatic, the top of said chamber consisting of a wooden cap having its grain transverse to so the'longitudinal grain of the fixed board and -firmly glued thereto, and a hinge, to the moving-board su ported on said cap.

7. A hingedbeilows pneumatic having an extension beyond its hinge containing a valve chamber 0 ening into said pneumatic, a valve jin'said amber normall seated at the abot'tom, lane of said cham er, and a port- 'the c above said valve, and a seat" to said ortjatan angle slanting upwardly towargs the interior of the main part of the ipneumatieg j,

8. .Afl'neumati'e, chest consisting of two boards racing each other and having pneumatics andvalvesco-acting from one board to the other, separating posts of unchanging dimension between said two boards, and a cemented sheet-likeedgeseal extending from the edge of one board to theedge of the other. 9. A pneumatic-action havingtwo boards facing each other, and valves on one board actuated by 'pneumatics on the opposite;

board, fiend permanent distance-separating means between the two boards and extended into the v'alve board to ap roximately the plane oi'lthe seating face of t e valve.

10. A pneumaticaction having two boards facing each other, and valves on one board actuated by, pneumatics on the opposite board, and permanent distance separating means between the two boards having terminals respectively approximately in the planes of the normally seated valve and the controlling pneumatic.

11. A pneumatic action having an interior pneumatic diaphragm, a follower button opposite thereto, but free of attachment therewith, a valveadjusting means having ad- 'usting screw-thread engagement with said utton and extending to the exteriorof the action, and an anti-revolution check-means .co-acting with said button.

12; A pneumatic action having an interior posits thereto ut free of attachment therewith, a valve-adjusting means having adbutton and extending to the exterior of the action, an anti-revolution checli-mcans coasting with said button, and an action boa-rd opposite tosaid diaphragm" and with. which said check-means cooperates.

pneumatlc die hragm, a follower button op- 'justing screw-thread engagement with said 13. A pneumatic action having pneumatios with controlling ducts thereto, thimbles at the exits of said ducts, and continuin tubes entered snugly inside thebore of sai thimbles.

14. A pneumatic chestconsisting 't'it aj..."

boards facing each other and having" "pa r-1 'matics and; valves co aoting from one. "card to the other, separating 'meansholding said boards apart with space between'the edges: 7

of said boards, and a sheet like sealfrom the edge of one board to" the edge'of the other.

soar. A. GALLY.

Witnesses: I

Susan il l. GALLY,

Manr A; Gamer. 

